WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The three candidates for Berkshire district attorney will take questions from the audience on Tuesday night during a forum sponsored by the Williamstown League of Women Voters. 

 

The forum will take place Tuesday from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Paresky Center's auditorium on the Williams College campus. The public is invited to attend and participate. 

 

Paul J. Caccaviello, Andrea Harrington and Judith C. Knight are competing for the Democratic nomination in the state primary on Sept. 4. With no other candidates in the race, the winner of the primary will essentially be the victor in the general election in November. 

 

The candidates will be allowed opening and closing statements and audience members will be given time to ask questions or questions may be submitted in advance to askinner@williams.edu.

 

Caccaviello, of Dalton, is the current district attorney. He was appointed earlier this year on the recommendation of his predecessor, David Capeless, who retired early to make way for his first assistant district attorney. Caccaviello graduated from Western New England College of Law in Springfield in 1989 and the former North Adams State College in 1986, has been an assistant DA since. Caccaviello also served on the St. Agnes' School Board, was a member of the Dalton Rotary Club and is a trustee of Berkshire Community College.

    

Harrington, of Richmond, is an attorney with Conner and Morneau LLP. A graduate of Taconic High School in Pittsfield, she took international relations at the University of Washington and received her law degree, cum laude, from American University. She has been a criminal and civil practice attorney for 15 years and is a Richmond School Committee member. She ran for state Senate two years ago but lost to Adam Hinds in the three-way Democratic primary. 

 

Knight, of Lee, was an assistant district attorney in eastern Massachusetts from 1988 to 1993 and has been in private practice in Great Barrington since 2006. Also a certified mediator, she was an adjunct professor at Western New England School of Law from 1999-2005. She worked in the Colorado public defender's office in Denver in 1987-1988 after receiving her law degree in 1987 from Washington and Lee University in Virginia. She ran and lost to Capeless, the incumbent, in a 2006 primary bid.

 

WilliNet will tape the forum for rebroadcast and use by other public channels. WilliNet also has interviews and other forums with the candidates available online.